Columbia Encyclopedia entry: Levittown
Levittownlĕv'ət-toun′. 1 Uninc. residential city (1990 pop. 53,286), Nassau co., SE N.Y., on Long Island; founded 1947. Originally about 7 sq mi (18 sq km) of potato fields, it was developed by Levitt & Sons, Inc., as a mass-produced area of private, low-cost housing. Each of the more than 17,000 nearly identical two-bedroom Cape Cod–style homes were built on a concrete slab and offered 800 sq ft (74 sq m) of space in a suburban setting. 2 Suburban development (1990 pop. 55,362), Bucks co., E Pa., between Philadelphia and Trenton, N.J. It was the second housing establishment built (1951–55) by Levitt & Sons, who repeated the low-cost residence plan of the N.Y. development. The name Levittown has come to symbolize the U.S. post–World War II suburban phenomenon, which first gave middle-class families the option of inexpensive, single-unit housing outside urban neighborhoods. Sometimes criticized for their cookie-cutter designs, most of Levittown's houses have been remodeled and expanded by their owners in the years since they were built.
See studies by H. Gans (1967) and B. M. Kelly (1993).
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Columbia Encyclopedia search results: Levittown
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- Gans, Herbert
Gans, Herbert, 1927–, American sociologist and educator, b. Cologne, Germany. He came to the United States in 1940 and became a U.S. citizen. In The Urban Villagers (2d ed. 1982), an important...
- Levitt, William Jaird
Levitt, William Jaird, 1907–94, American builder, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. After studying at New York Univ., he (and his brother) joined his father's construction company; it became (1929) Levitt & S...
- suburb
Suburb, a community in an outlying section of a city or, more commonly, a nearby, politically separate municipality with social and economic ties to the central city. In the 20th cent., partic...
